Iconic photos of India-Pakistan partition
The Indian subcontinent was partitioned into Hindu-dominated but secular India, and the Muslim state of Pakistan after attaining independence from Great Britain in August 1947. Unfortunately, it was accompanied by the largest mass migration in human history of around ten million people. An estimated one million civilians died in the accompanying riots, particularly in the western region of Punjab which was split into two by the border. The agreement to divide colonial India into two separate states is commonly seen as the outcome of conflict between the nations’ elites. This explanation, however, renders the mass violence that accompanied partition difficult to explain. Since partition, the territory of Jammu and Kashmir has remained in dispute, with India and Pakistan both holding sectors. #'The countdown calender of Lord Mountbatten' British withdrawal from the subcontinent was announced hurriedly soon after the victory of the Labour party in the British general election of July 1945. An act of parliament proposed a date for the transfer of power into Indian hands in June 1948, summarily advanced to August 1947 at the whim of the last viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten. This left a great many issues and interests unresolved at the end of colonial rule. In charge of negotiations, the viceroy exacerbated difficulties by focusing largely on Jinnah’s Muslim League and the Indian National Congress (led by Jawaharlal Nehru). The two parties’ representative status was established by Constituent Assembly elections in July 1946, but fell well short of a universal franchise. Tellingly, although Pakistan celebrated its independence on 14 August and India on 15 August 1947, the border between the two new states was not announced until 17 August. It was hurriedly drawn up by a British lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe, who has little knowledge of Indian conditions and with the use of out-of-date maps and census materials. Communities, families, and farms were cut in two, but by delaying the announcement the British managed to avoid responsibility for the worst fighting and the mass migration that had followed. The actual division between the two new dominions was done according to what has come to be known as the 3 June Plan or Mountbatten Plan. The border between India and Pakistan was determined by a British Government-commissioned report usually referred to as the Radcliffe Line after the London lawyer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who wrote it. Pakistan came into being with two non-contiguous enclaves, East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) and West Pakistan, separated geographically by India. India was formed out of the majority Hindu regions of the colony, and Pakistan from the majority Muslim areas. #'Man sitting in the divided library' #'Sikh people leaving their homes' #'Young refugee sits on purana qila' #'Refugee trains #'Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Mountbatten two weeks before independence # Mahatma Gandhi shares a moment of levity with Lord Mountbatten two weeks before Britain returns independence to India. New Delhi, India. August 1st, 1947. # '''Flag hoisting on August 15, 1947 #'Time magazine cover' The British approach to the Independence of India was to offer and enable any solution that the Indian political leaders could agree. Britain just wanted to be out of it, because managing the subcontinent was proving beyond the capacity of UK after fighting WW2. UK was bankrupt and sliding into deep economic recession. India was just another big problem and there had been pressure for independence for 100 years. Partition had been tried once before and it failed. In 1905, under pressure from the Muslims in the East, Bengal was partitioned into East and West along more-or-less religious lines. It seemed the right thing to do but was opposed by the Hindu majority and led to dangerous social and political unrest. The partition was reversed in 1911, and Bengal became a single province again in 1912. As a result, Britain was very uncertain about religious partition, to say the least. The Viceroy Mountbatten tried by all means to preserve a single subcontinent but was met by two opposing views, neither of which helped the British arrive at a viable solution. First, Jinnah and the Muslim League wanted a country of their own and they wanted to include all of Sindh and Punjab, all of Kashmir, and a territory along the Himalayas to East Bengal (repartitioned) which also would be included. This was clearly a non-starter and the partition of Pakistan was one "solution." Secondly, the Hindu Congress held the view that no Hindu should ever be governed by a Muslim administration. Mountbatten was authorised by the Labour government in London to agree any solution which Nehru and Jinnah believed was workable. The conclusions: 1. the British did not lead the process and appeared weak, undecided and uncaring; which was not the true situation but that opinion persists today; the British had a responsibility for a well-organised transition to Independence but could not understand the intransigence of the Muslims coupled with the requirements of the majority Hindus; 3. Naively, Congress was trying to be peacemaker, as befits the Hindu philosophy, with the result that Nehru and colleagues collapsed in the "negotiations" and hoped that good human relations would prevail; they left Hindu populations undefended, with no future for planning, and no proper guidance during the transition. So, overall, everybody made a mess of it for their own reasons and motivations. Partition has failed - again - but it was what the Indians wanted. India today is a successful economy but with a major problem of poverty and also corruption in public life, including inside the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Pakistan is one of the poorest of countries with a military government pretending to be a democracy, spending billions on nuclear weapons whilst its people die from starvation and wet weather. Category:Politics Category:History Category:India Category:Pakistan